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California Parole Board Denies Release to "Co-ed Killer" Edmund Kemper, Who Murdered Eight in 1972 and 1973

Kemper's lawyer said he had been a model prisoner for 30 years. "We don't care how much of a model prisoner he is," the prosecutor said.

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Edmund Kemper in glasses and a jail jumpsuit standing in a doorway in the 1970s

Edmund Kemper, the "Co-ed Killer," murdered eight women, including his mother, around Santa Cruz in 1972 and 1973. On July 24, 2007, the California parole board ruled that he would spend at least five more years in prison.

Kemper, 58, was held at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. His lawyer argued that he should be released because he had been a model prisoner for 30 years and had never been written up, according to prosecutor Ariadne Symons, who represented the district attorney's office at the hearing by video conference. "We don't care how much of a model prisoner he is because of the enormity of his crimes," Symons said. Kemper would next be eligible for release in July 2012.

His killings ran from May 1972 until his arrest in April 1973, and six of the women he killed were 15 to 23 years old. His last victim was his mother, Clarnell Strandberg. He was convicted in November 1973 and sentenced to eight concurrent life terms. He was denied parole again in July 2024 and will next be eligible in 2031.

The East Bay Times described Kemper's victims as eight women, while KSBW later described them as seven women and one girl.

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